OF THE plethora of job-creation schemes Britain has seen down the years, the one from which unemployed in East Lancashire are expected soon to benefit is surely among the most dubious -- and daft.

For straight out of the stockpile of soundbite policies that New Labour is smitten by, this scheme's gimmicky silliness can be summed up by the slogan: "Get a haircut -- get a job".

Yes, really, the new £1million Action Team for Jobs being set up in Blackburn and Darwen -- one of 40 areas in Britain targeted by this government drive -- will be issuing vouchers to the jobless so they can get a free haircut. The idea is that they will look smart and presentable when they go for job interviews. But, surely, the government can and should come up with ideas much less trivial than this -- particularly when its hard-core solution for unemployment among the young and long-term jobless, the New Deal, is being criticised for creating only a few permanent jobs at huge expense.

This haircut scheme reeks of spin. It's the headline-seeking stuff that aims to show the government has instant solutions for every problem.

Only recently, its answer for yobbism -- promptly dropped in the face of reality -- was on-the-spot fines, with louts being marched to cashpoints and made to pay. And, so, with haircuts for those on the dole -- a literally cosmetic solution that will solve little in practice.

Yes, we can look more deeply at this scheme and see some more sensible proposals -- such as help with travel and child-care to enable job-seekers to get work.

But it is more sound and fundamental ideas that East Lancashire wants to fight unemployment. Skills training and strong regional aid to attract employers. Not this sort of nannying froth that smacks more of the government's concern to be seen to be 'doing something' -- and contrived for the sake of its own image, more than for that of those on the dole or their employment hopes.